motocross

Thousands of racing fans are expected to converge on Pavilion Motocross Park in Covington, Wyoming County, this holiday weekend for the AMA and ATVA East National Hare Scramble.

Riders from all over the world will be participating in the inaugural SUNY Canton and St. Lawrence Radiology Pro-Am Challenge on July 2-3. Quads will race Saturday, followed by fireworks at 9:30 p.m., and bikes race on Sunday.

This will be a bike, youth and quad event, with the Peewees, C bike and C quad riders having their own separate races on courses friendly to them. Pavilion Motocross Park is located at 1260 Taylor Road, Covington. The course will include the MX track so spectating will be awesome.

Purse and prizes total more than $30,000. Pros will be competing for $400 to $3,000 payback -- depending on their finish, with $1,500 purses for the Women's bike and quad classes. You could end up getting paid to race, so this should help ease the cost of fuel for getting there.

Separate reserved track-side parking in the pits for the Pro riders and, a first, the Women A/B riders, too. The event is being held near the Darien Lakes Theme Park (only 25 miles away), with a discount coupon for $16.99 admission (instead of $42.95) being given to the first 1,000 people attending the race.

Also, Steve Hatch <www.stevehatchracing.com> is holding one of his famous riding schools on July 4th after the race, with free Darien Lakes admission for those attending his school and plenty of Steve's attention to your riding -- a deal any way you look at it.

Red Bull will be here handing out samples and they'll have remote toys for the kids to play with.

Online pre-entry and rider-number reservation are available. There is plenty of free swag for the first 500 racers registering for this event. Onsite parts and food available in case you get hungry or forgot/broke something on your bike/quad.

A $10 gate fee buys admission to the whole weekend of racing and activities Gates opened today (Friday) at noon and close on Monday July 4th.

With more than 70 acres of dry, level parking and free primitive camping no one should stay home from this event. A special invitation goes out to our Canadian friends. This event is only 55 miles from their border.

I was out at Area 51 yesterday to watch the races and take some photos. I had a great time and figured I would share a few. If you have never been there, you are really missing out on one of the great attractions in Genesee County!

A young rider waves to the camera, making it look easy! He's in the 7-11 age group!

I was out at area 51 today to watch the races and take some photos. I had a great time and figured I would share a few. If you have never been there, you are really missing out on one of the great attractions in Genesee county!

A young rider waves to the camera, making it look easy! He's in the 7-11 age group!

Stafford's Jason DiSalvo is racing this weekend at the West Coast Moto Jam in Sonoma, Calif.

This is a sport I don't understand at all, but based on this chart (which features live results, so it could be different when you view it), it looks like he is doing very well. I think he's in first place, 22 laps into the race.

The multiple day event is airing on SpeedTV. The next, and final, telecast is tonight at midnight.

DiSalvo won the first race of the season, the Daytona 200.

Jason returns to New York after this race and begins preparation for the Miller Motorsports Race in Salt Lake City.

This weekend Area 51 Motocross hosted their biggest event of the season, The Can/Am Air.

Saturday gave competitors a chance to get in some practice time on the main track, and featured a grass race and the Dunlop "Minicross" race. The minicross race was a chance to introduce young kids to the sport in a safer and less competitive environment.

Sunday was the main event, which was expected to bring out 600 riders to compete for over $40,000 worth of prizes. There were 19 classes ranging from "schoolboy" (ages 12-16) to the women's 50+ category and everything in between.

The competition was tough, and the racers really pushed their limits to try and get on the podium. Every racer I talked to couldn't wait to come back next year, Thank you to everyone at Area 51 for putting on such an awesome event!!